Local whale-watchers have reported what they believe was possibly the largest pod of gray whales seen in Southern California waters in at least three decades.

The pod of 23 gray whales was spotted Sunday afternoon off the coast of Palos Verdes by whale-watchers stations at Point Vicente, then confirmed by a whale researcher aboard a crowded vessel off San Pedro.

"ONCE IN A LIFETIME ENCOUNTER!" exclaimed local American Cetacean Society board member Alisa Schulman-Janiger on Facebook.

Schulman-Janiger said in an interview with NBC4 that the pod was first spotted by amateur scientists with the ACS-Los Angeles chapter's annual gray whale census. The volunteers called a local whale-watching boat, which reported the animals were sperm whales, a truly rare sight.

Hearing about the sperm whales, Schulman-Janiger raced from home to board the whale-watching vessel Christopher as it departed Long Beach harbor for its afternoon cruise.

As the boat got closer to the whales, which were now about 7 miles off San Pedro's Point Fermin, she saw with disappointment that they were gray whales, not sperm whales. Then she began counting.

And counting.

"Just when you though that it was over, MORE whales came up," she wrote in an email. "Over 30 years of watching and studying whales, and I was awestruck! I will NEVER forget this day!"

With Catalina Island as a backdrop, jostled by shouting tourists and excited children, Schulman-Janiger and a friend counted 23 flukes – the powerful tail of the whale. They took pictures and shot video, too.

"It was mindboggling how many there were," Schulman-Janiger said. "The sun was getting very low in the sky, and the blows were coming up pink, like pink cotton candy blows."

In 30 years of overseeing the ACS-LA's Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project, Schulman-Janiger said she has never seen a pod larger than about 16 whales.

Aboard the boat, she tried to stay calm.

"I was trying to count and stay very dispassionate. My friend and I were trying to count," she recalled. "We knew this was like once in a lifetime."

The news of the sighting spread rapidly among the tight-knit whale-watching community. When Schulman-Janiger returned to shore, she alerted a friend in San Diego who spotted a pod of about 20 whales on Monday morning.

"This is the largest sighting all in one group of gray whales that we’ve ever seen from shore and that I've ever seen in my life and I've heard of in Southern California," Schulman-Janiger said of the pod she saw.

She said she's checking with other researchers in the region to find out if they've ever spotted a larger pod.

Gray whales, which can grow up to 50 feet long, migrate from Arctic waters to Baja Mexico in fall, passing by Southern California beginning in December. They return to their Alaskan feeding grounds throughout the spring.

This year, the northern waters began freezing sooner than normal, so the migration began early – just as it did last year, Schulman-Janiger said.

So far this year, the whale-watchers at Point Vicente have spotted 488 southbound whales as of Jan. 22. For the same date last year, there were 476 whales – a fairly similar number, she said.

For more recent years, however, the volunteers had only counted between 150 and 300 as of Jan. 22.

There are about 21,000 gray whales in the eastern North Pacific Ocean, Schulman-Janiger said. It's not clear why more have been spotted off Southern California in the past two years, she said.

Her whale census project is the longest-running such shore-based project in the world, she said. They're always looking for volunteers.

Next week should mark the peak of the southbound migration. So if you’re an amateur scientist or just a lover of wildlife, get yourself to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes during daylight hours and see the gray whales for yourself.

"All you need are binoculars and patience," Schulman-Janiger said.

The San Diego Police Department is losing a key member of its top brass to retirement.    

After 28 years on the force, Assistant Chief Boyd Long is leaving for a job in private security.

He was considered a serious potential candidate for chief of police, if Bill Lansdowne's job were to come open.
           
Long says an offer that he didn't solicit presented itself before that happened -- and that it was an opportunity he couldn't turn down.

"I can honestly say I never had my sights set on being the chief of police,” told NBC 7 in an interview Wednesday in his 7th-floor office at police headquarters downtown.  “If the opportunity had come, I would have considered it. However , I never really set my sights. I have always, in the organization, felt wherever I'm at is where I need to put 100 percent of my effort."

But that ends Friday, when Long exits the police department to become vice president of security, transportation and parking at Valley View Casino & Hotel, foreclosing any bid to become San Diego's top cop.

He’ll be supervising about 225 employees at the Valley View complex in North County, roughly a quarter of the workforce there.

Long’s SDPD career wound up being both high-profile, and spread across a wide variety of divisions and assignments that lent themselves to news coverage and controversy.

When Civic Center Plaza was overrun with anti-Wall Street protesters from “Occupy San Diego” for weeks on end in 2011, Long handled police response operations, balancing civil rights with the need to maintain order and evict ‘occupiers’ on grounds of illegal lodging.

"He was very diplomatic; he came at it from a humanitarian point of view,” says Marti Emerald, chairwoman of the City Council’s Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee.  “He really did care about people's right to free speech and assembly.  But he knew when to draw the line."

Advocates for the homeless say Long was always in their corner, and in their midst.

"He understood the challenges that we face as providers,” says Bob McElroy, founder and CEO of the Alpha Project for the Homeless, which operates the city’s winter shelter.   “He knew the politics.  He knew the NIMBYs.  He knew the funding … he actually cares about the folks down here.  He comes down here by himself, without an entourage."

“We wish him the best of luck,” said Brian Marvel, president of the San Diego Police Officers Assn., calling Long “a dedicated leader”.

Long sees a parallel between what he's been doing for nearly three decades, and the job he'll start next week – customer service.

"Whether you're putting a person in jail, you're doing a service for somebody else that may be a victim of crime,” Long said “Or whether you're responding to somebody when there's a missing child.  It's about customer service.”

He's leaving with deep concerns about the department's ability to recruit and retain officers.

City budget cuts and pay freezes have sent many public safety employees packing for other, better-paying law enforcement agencies, or into the private sector and retirement.

“We have to be competitive in this market of policing,” Long said, insistently tapping his desk with a forefinger.  “If we don’t remain competitive, we’re not going to wind up with the candidates that our community members want, that our businesses owners want, and that our police department needs to go out and perform this job every day.”

The mother of a man who died during the Benghazi attack gave her reaction today following statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sean Smith was killed while he was working as an information specialist in Libya last year. His mother, Pat, said with each bit of information released about the Benghazi attacks, she still wants the same thing: Answers.

“I want to know what happened,” she said. “My son is dead. Nothing I can do about it. My only son.”

Pat watched small portions of the Congressional Hearings on Benghazi at home on Wednesday. She says she thinks Hillary Clinton should take the blame for the Benghazi attacks because that is what leaders do – but believes Clinton isn't the only one who should be taking the blame.,

She said President Barack Obama also needs to admit his failure to protect the U.S. embassy.

Pat says she still doesn't know why her son was in Libya in the first place, but did say Sean would call her and tell her how happy he was with his job.

During funeral services for her son and the three other Americans killed, Pat said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held her face and promised he would let her know what happened in the attack.

She is still waiting on that response. Pat said answers are the only way for her to find closure in losing her son, but she believes that is never going to happen.

“I miss him and if it’s so secret then whisper in my ear and I'll shut up and go away,” Pat said. “Not telling me is not fair. I want to know why he died.”

A La Jolla oncologist and his medical practice have pleaded guilty in a scheme to import and dispense unapproved, foreign cancer drugs to unwitting patients, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy’s office announced Wednesday.

According to investigators, defendant Dr. Joel I. Bernstein, 59, imported unapproved cancer drugs at a deep discount and distributed them to patients. He would then bill Medicare as if the drugs were legitimate and pocket the profits.

His patients were unaware of his scheme, investigators said.

At a hearing on Jan. 15, Bernstein pleaded guilty to a single count of introducing a cancer drug called “Mabthera” into interstate commerce and administering it to patients. The drug is not approved in the U.S. and was intended for a market in Turkey.

Investigators say the approved U.S. drug with the same active ingredient is Rituxan., used to treat lymphomas and leukemias.

In addition, Bernstein’s medical practice, Dr. Joel I. Bernstein, M.D., Inc., also pleaded guilty at a hearing Wednesday on one count of health care fraud.

From 2007 to 2011, investigators say the practice bought $3.4 million in foreign cancer drugs not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The office purchased the drugs for much less than market value in the U.S. and then submitted claims to Medicare at the full reimbursement price. To keep the scheme going, the office fraudulently used Medicare reimbursement codes for approved cancer drugs, since Medicare doesn’t pay for unapproved drugs.

Employees at the medical practice admitted they were aware that the drugs were not approved by the FDA because in October 2008 the FDA sent the office a warning notice. The note said a shipment of drugs en route to the medical practice had been detained because the drugs were not approved for use in the U.S. by the FDA.

Still, despite the warning, Bernstein’s practice continued to purchase and administer foreign drugs.

The plea agreement for the medical practice calls for $1.7 million in restitution to Medicare, plus a forfeiture of $1.2 million in profits. The medical practice will be sentenced on May 17.

The government has also filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in District Court against Bernstein and his corporate medical practice for submitting false claims to Medicare.

According to the FDA, Bernstein’s case is the latest in a growing, nationwide trend to expose unwitting patients to foreign drugs – especially cancer drugs -- not vetted by the FDA.

The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations currently has more than 200 investigations involving similar schemes orchestrated by medical practices for personal financial gain.

In most cases, FDA officials say these unapproved oncology drugs are infused into patients without the patients ever seeing the box the drug came in. This makes it easy for medical practices to cover up any wrongdoing.

“This isn’t just about the greed of one doctor, but about the welfare of many patients,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “In a worst-case scenario, chemotherapy drugs that have not been approved by the FDA may be fake, ineffective, unsafe and dangerous.”

In Bernstein’s case, the drugs he administered to patients were not counterfeit and did contain the appropriate level of active ingredients. They were, however, still unapproved for use in the United States.

Investigators say there is no evidence to indicate that any of Bernstein’s patients were harmed by the foreign drugs.

Bernstein's sentencing is scheduled for Apr. 16. He faces one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, one year of supervised release and restitution. His medical practice faces five years of supervised release, a $500,000 fine and mandatory restitution.

Eight more San Diego residents died from influenza last week, bringing the number of deaths up to 14, according to the County Health and Human Services Agency.

The ages of the victims ranges from 46 to 92, according to a statement from the County Health and Human Services Agency.

All but one of the patients had underlying medical conditions. 

How to Avoid the Flu

A total of 14 people have died this flu season in San Diego. The spike of eight additional deaths announced Wednesday was by far the most drastic increase since the flu season began. 

The county continues to see a quickly rising number of people affected by the flu. A total of 503 flu cases were reported for the week ending Jan. 19, compared to 311 the previous week. That week, the number more than doubled compared to the week before. 

The number of flu cases this season has now passed 1,000. Those cases make up 10 percent of all visits, which is slightly higher than expected.

However, despite the grim numbers, this season isn't the worst San Diego has seen. In the 2003-04 flu season saw 22 flu-related deaths. 

The flu vaccine is still available and will be administered these days at the following locations:

Jan. 25
1-4:30 p.m.
Bayside Community Center
2202 Comstock Street, San Diego
Children and Adults

Jan. 24 and 25
8-11 a.m. and 1-4 p.m.
North Inland Public Health Center
606 East Valley Parkway, Escondido
Adults both days; children only on Friday

Jan. 26
9 a.m. – 12 Noon
South Region Public Health Center
690 Oxford Street, Chula Vista
Children and Adults

Vaccinations are also available at local pharmacies and doctors’ offices. County public health centers also have flu shots for children and adults with no medical insurance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people 6 months and older receive a vaccination.

Flu Tips for Parents of Young Children

State officials warned earlier this month that flu is on the rise, though California's numbers have been comparatively low so far this season.

Police responded to reports of a shooting near an apartment complex in Clairemont Wednesday night, authorities confirmed.

The gunfire was reported by multiple 911 callers at around 8:10 p.m. near a complex at Mt. Alifan Drive and Genesee Avenue.

When responding officer arrived at the scene, they found one victim suffering from a gunshot wound. No suspects were immediately located in the area.

The victim was transported to Sharp Memorial Hospital. The victim’s current condition is unknown.

Police officers shut down surrounding streets following the shooting.

At this time, no suspect description is available.

The investigation is ongoing. Check back for updates.
 

Gov. Jerry Brown looked back at what he called a "remarkable" year and outlined his vision for California in 2013 Thursday morning during his annual State of the State address.

Full Text: 2013 State of the State Address

High-speed rail, education finances, climate change, jobs, health care and projects involving California's water supply and other infrastructure issues were all mentioned during the Thursday morning address in Sacramento. The speech comes about two months after voters approved Prop 30, Brown's measure that he described during the November election as a way to fund "the California Dream."

Brown's third State of the State address marked a shift in tone from his 2012 speech in which he talked of a state "on the mend" and warned of the ramifications if his education tax measure failed. The speech comes about two weeks after Brown proposed a state budget of $97.6 billion for fiscal year 2013-2014.

That's about $6.3 billion more than the current fiscal year budget.

"California has once again confounded our critics," Brown said to open the address. "We have a solid and enduring budget, and we're going to keep in that way for years to come."

Prop 30's tax increases on incomes over $250,000 would be in effect for seven years. A sales tax increase of a quarter-cent cent will be in effect for four years.

"We have promises to keep," Brown said. "The most important one is the one we made to the people if Prop 30 passed. This means living within our means and not spending what we don't have."

Brown referenced Bible passages and quoted President Franklin Roosevelt to emphasize the importance of building "reserves against the leaner times that will surely come." He alluded to California historical figures and quoted French writer Montaigne when he encouraged lawmakers to do more than "producing hundreds of new laws each year."

Half-way through his term, the Democratic governor enters 2013 with his party in control of the legislative and executive branches. Democrats now hold two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the Legislature after the November election.

"It's easier when you've got more than a majority of your own party in control of the Legislature," said Bebitch Jeffe. "But it all depends on leadership."

Brown touched on education funding and a budget summary that calls for discretion at the local level. He asked lawmakers to approve a local funding formula that distributes supplemental funds to districts based on "real world problems," such as income and the number of English-language speakers.

The governor devoted a portion of the address to a plan to address potential impacts on California's water supply in the event of an earthquake, storm or flood.

"My proposed plan is two tunnels 30 miles long and 40 feet wide, designed to improve the ecology of the Delta, with almost 100 square miles of habitat restoration," said Brown. "Yes, that is big but so is the problem."

As expected, he also discussed what could be a major part of his legacy -- high-speed rail. The first phase of the project will be built from Madera to Bakersfield before extending through the Tehachapi Mountains to Palmdale.

The project will require 30 miles of tunnels and bridges.

"It is bold but so is everything else about California," said Brown.

A lawyer for Manti Te'o's alleged hoaxster has added a new wrinkle to the already thorny mystery of the Notre Dame football star's fake dead girlfriend, saying that his client disguised his voice to sound like a woman's. The reveal comes just as Te'o's interview with ABC's Katie Couric is set to air Thursday.

The man allegedly behind the hoax, an acquaintance named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, posed as the fictional Lennay Kekua not just online but in a number of all-night phone conversations with Te'o, Tuiasosopo's lawyer Milton Grimes told The New York Daily News.

Te'o thought he was speaking with his supposed girlfriend when in fact, Grimes said, "It was Ronaiah as Lennay" — faking a woman's voice with a falsetto.

"Come on, Hollywood does it all the time," Grimes told the Daily News. "People can do that."

Tuiasosopo — a musician and singer who has auditioned for NBC's "The Voice" and performs with a Christian band — has had voice and dramatic training, the Daily News reported.

"This wasn't a prank to make fun," Grimes told the Daily News, terming the hoax "a person with a troubled existence trying to reach out and communicate and have a relationship." He declined to characterize the specifics of how his client might be troubled.

Last week, an anonymous friend of Tuiasosopo told ESPN that he had tearfully called her and confessed to the hoax. She said he told her it was not the first time he had created a fake persona online to dupe somebody into a relationship.

ESPN also interviewed two other people who said their relatives had been duped by Tuiasosopo in a similar scam.

Tuiasosopo himself has not spoken publicly about his alleged involvement in the hoax.

Te'o for his part has denied any involvement in the hoax, saying he was simply a victim.

He did admit to Katie Couric in an interview set to air on Couric's ABC show Thursday that he had lied about his supposed girlfriend's death of leukemia more than once, even after he had discovered the hoax.

"Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said. "Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?"

Detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating a man wanted in connection with three armed robberies at ATMs in Santee and El Cajon.

According to investigators, the three robberies happened between Jan. 16 and Jan. 21.

In the first incident, which happened Jan. 16 at around 11 pm., detectives say the suspect approached a male victim who was trying to withdraw money from an ATM at a Mission Federal Credit Union located at 245 Town Center Parkway in Santee.

Armed with a handgun, the suspect forced the victim to withdraw the maximum amount of money from the ATM. He then grabbed the cash and took off in a car in an unknown direction.

On Monday at around 1:30 p.m., the same suspect struck again at the very same ATM in Santee.

In that case, detectives say the suspect approached a woman who was trying to complete at transaction at the Mission Federal Credit Union. The man placed a hand into his waistband to indicate he had a weapon and ordered the woman to withdraw money from the ATM.

The woman did not comply and ran to her car. The man did not receive any money from the victim, who told detectives she saw him flee the scene in an older model white car. In both Santee cases, the suspect was caught on surveillance tape.

Then, on that same day just before 8 p.m., a third similar incident was reported.

Detectives say a suspect matching the same description as the man caught on surveillance tape in Santee approached a victim from behind at a Wells Fargo ATM located at 2398 Jamacha Road in unincorporated El Cajon.

The suspect was armed with a handgun and demanded money from the victim. He grabbed the cash and drove away.

On Wednesday detectives released surveillance photos of the three-time ATM robbery suspect. Officials describe him as a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old.

He’s between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot11, approximately 180 pounds and has a thin mustache. He was wearing a black baseball cap with a red bill and possibly a red “B” logo on the front, a red sweatshirt and dark jeans in at least two of the cases.

His vehicle is an unknown older model, white, four-door car with some body damage.

He was armed with a black, semi-automatic handgun.
Anyone with information on this suspect is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Department at (858) 565-5200 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. This man is armed and should not be approached, officials said.
 

Police are searching for an unknown man who allegedly tried to grope and grab two different teenage girls in the Otay Mesa area Wednesday afternoon.

According to police, a Hispanic male in his 20s driving a light-colored vehicle approached a 17-year-old girl at Del Sur Boulevard and Arruza Street just before 4 p.m.

Police say the man allegedly groped and touched the teenager inappropriately before fleeing the scene.

It is unclear what else transpired during their interaction, but the teen was left lying in the street bleeding, police said. Medics responded to treat her, but the extent of her injuries is unknown.

Meanwhile, around the same time, officers responded to a second similar call in the same area, near the 1400 block of Piedra Street.

This time, police say a 13-year-old girl reported being approached by a Hispanic male as she was walking home from school.

The girl told police that the man -- who matched the description from the incident involving the other teen -- tried to grab and touch her inappropriately.

She ran home and told her parents, who then called police.

Officers scoured the area in search of the groping suspect, but he was not immediately located.
Police have not yet confirmed if these two incidents are related. Both cases are under investigation.

Police did not release any further information Wednesday afternoon regarding the suspect or victims.

The incidents left some local parents feeling uneasy, including Otay Mesa resident Nancy Beltran.
She told NBC 7 this makes her worried for the safety of her own two daughters.

"It surprises me, but it does worry me because sometimes my daughters are playing in the front yard and somebody could just roll up. Yeah, it’s scary,” said Beltran. "Don't walk alone. Don't let your kids walk alone. Walk in a group."

The groping incidents in Otay Mesa Wednesday happened about a half-mile from where an unknown man recently tried to kidnap a woman by pulling her into a van. In that case, the woman was able to run away and call for help.
 

A car drove into the garage of a Tierrasanta home early Thursday causing major structural damage.

Emergency crews responded to the home on Seda Drive around 5:30 a.m. and found the car sitting on the driveway with its front end crashed into the corner of the garage door.

Because the damage was significant to a load-bearing wall in the front of the home, firefighters requested a city engineer come out to the scene and inspect the damages.

One person was transported to a nearby hospital. The person's identity and condition were not known however, officials said the residents inside the home at the time of the crash were not injured.

Officials haven’t released what caused the vehicle to lose control and slam into the garage.
 

San Diego woke up to a chance of rain showers Thursday as a winter storm system began to move into our area.

Rain has been heaviest north of Oceanside for the morning commute but was expected to appear in small bursts throughout the morning.

Even though it’s the middle of January, temperatures will be mild.

“Definitely a tropical feel to this as those clouds are coming up out of the south,” said NBC 7 San Diego meteorologist Jodi Kodesh.

Check your forecast here

The brunt of the storm will move through before 10 a.m. In the afternoon, the chance of rain lessens but Kodesh suggests keeping your umbrella nearby.

The chance of rain increases again Friday and is expected to linger through the weekend.

There are only a few days left in the month, and up until now, we’ve only seen 0.21” of rain.

January is one of the region's wettest months bringing in an average of 1.47” of precipitation.

"Showers in Vista, and Spring bulbs are happy!!!" Deborah Burt from Vista posted on Facebook.

Manti Te'o and his parents spoke on-camera for the first time Thursday since the story of the Notre Dame linebacker's dead girlfriend began to unravel and questions swirled about who was truly behind the lies.

In an interview with Katie Couric that aired Thursday, Te'o insisted that he was fooled into believing that Lennay Kekua, an invented online personality, was real, and that he had fallen deeply in love with her. He also flatly denied lying for the sake of his heroic image or to cover up his sexual orientation.

"For people feeling that they're misled—for that I'm sorry. I wasn't as forthcoming about it as I should have been, but I didn't lie."

He also insisted the hoax was not an elaborate way to conceal that he was gay. When Couric directly asked if he was gay, said he wasn't. "Far from it," he said. "Far from it."

Over and over, Couric asked how he could not have seen the signs, how he could have missed all the clues that this person didn't exist. She ticked off all the evidence: During FaceTime chats, he could never see her face, plans to meet face-to-face never came through.

Te'o confirmed that during their online chats, "Kekua" could always see him, but he could never see her. He said he would always complain to her about the chronic problem. "I don't know what's wrong with your camera, but I can't see you," he said he would say.

But he added that there were also signs that she and her story were real. During the time she said she was hospitalized, he would call and hear a respirator on the other end of the line. Kekua had also spoken to other people in his life, including his parents.

And Couric, who reviewed his phone records and voice mails, said there was plenty of reality.

"You listen to their conversations and it's of a boyfriend and a girlfriend, at least from her end," Couric said. "And yes, he stayed on the phone with her for hours upon hours while she was ostensibly in the hospital being treated for leukemia."

Couric played voicemails that Kekua had left for him. In one angry one, she cried after accusing him that another woman had answered the phone when she had called him earlier.

"I don't know who answered your phone and I don't care. I swear on my life I'm trying. You made it clear what you want. Take care," she said.

Te'o told Couric that there was no way that a woman had answered his phone since he was in his room with his phone and his door locked at the time Kekua said she had called.

In another voicemail, she was sweet.

"Hey babe, I'm just calling to say goodnight," she began, signing off with: "I love you so much hun, sweet dreams."

Couric asked if he thought the man who allegedly confessed to orchestrating the scheme—an acquaintance named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo—had been impersonating a woman's voice.

"It didn't sound like a man. It sounded like a woman," Te'o said. "But if he somehow made that voice, that's an incredible talent to do that, especially every day."

Tuiasosopo, Te'o said, had contacted him to reveal that the whole thing was a lie and to apologize for letting it go so far for so long.

Te'o said that Tuiasosopo had told him "he just wanted to help people and that this was his way of helping people."

"Obviously I didn't really say anything." Te'o explained. "I was so speechless."

Challenged by evidence that he spoke publicly about his girlfriend's death even after "Kekua" had contacted him months after he was told of her death, Te'o said he wasn't sure how to handle the whole situation when he began to realize that the whole thing could have been a lie.

"Katie, put yourself in my situation. My whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12 ... now I get a phone call on Dec. 6 that she's alive and I'm going to be put on national TV two days later and (they're going to) ask me about the same question? I mean, what would you do?"

Te'o did admit that he lied to his father and told him he had met the woman he had called the love of his life, in person.

"The biggest lie that I'm sorry for is the lie I told my dad." he said, adding that he always aims to please his parents.

Both his parents became emotional as they defended their son.

"I've known him 21 years of his life," his father said. "And he is not a liar." He said he worried for his son's safety when he learned the full story. He pointed out that Manti was at the end of his career and blackmail crossed his mind. "Is something going to solicit him later on?" he wondered.

His mother talked about how she and her husband had also been sucked into the hoax and had spoken to Kekua on the phone. But she also said that Manti's devotion to this woman—fake or not—as she battled with an illness, confirmed the kind of person he is.

"I am proud of his character."

As temperatures hover well below freezing for a third day this week, some New Yorkers on Long who are still rebuilding after Sandy have been enduring the cold without any heat.

The problem for these Island Park, N.Y., residents, according to gas provider National Grid, is that moisture left from Sandy has frozen in the pipes carrying gas to heat the homes.

"You think that Sandy's over, and it's not over," said homeowner Marty Lampart.

In all, some 80 homes in the area have been affected, according to National Grid spokeswoman Wendy Ladd.

The coldest weather gripped the region Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures starting out in the teens and creeping up to the mid-20s during the day. Subzero wind chills are making the already freezing temperatures feel even colder.

National Grid has set up a command post in Island Park, as crews go house to house, trying to correct the problem.

Despite that effort, several homeowners said the heat has been coming on, then going out since Tuesday.

"I knew it was out when I saw my breath this morning," said Ira Tennant, who has lost his heat, then regained it and lost it again.  

Leonard D'Angelo, whose indoor thermostat read 56 degrees, said he wears outerwear just to get by inside.

"I'm dressed inside like I would be outside," he said.

Several homes in the town remain boarded up and damaged, nearly three months after Sandy.  Some did not return to their homes and see heat restored until November.

National Grid says it will keep working in the area until the cold snap lifts. That might not be until Monday.

The 49ers star quarterback is showing he has some business sense along with keen athletic prowess.

Case in point: Colin Kaepernick has applied to trademark the term "Kaepernicking."

Click here to view the application.

"Kaepernicking" is a move Kaepernick makes after scoring a touchdown. He did it twice during the playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. The move is a kiss of his right bicep.

The patent application is dated Jan. 14, which was a full week before the 49ers clinched a spot in Super Bowl XLVII.

There are already T-shirts with the move and the phrase for sale.

Kaepernick had a break out game against the Packers, rushing for 181 yards and scoring not one but two touchdowns. He also passed for another 263 yards in the game for two more touchdowns.

Kaepernick is not the first athlete to patent a pose. Football star Tim Tebow owns the trademark to "Tebowing", which is the act of dropping to one knee and bowing in prayer.

Education probably isn’t the first word that comes to mind at the mention of sequestration.

The term is more often than not associated with automatic military cuts. But at a gathering of local and state representatives from the Parents and Teachers Association on Thursday, the subject loomed largely over the heads of parents and teachers planning for the future.

Sequestration – or automatic, across-the-board national spending cuts – will take effect in March unless a deal in Washington is reached.

“We were originally looking at a 9.1 percent reduction across-the-board cut,” said Jacqui Chevalier, an analyst with the National PTA. “Now, we’re looking, more realistically, at a 5.9 percent federal cut to a good part of the budget that includes public education.”

She added that these cuts will likely impact the districts that currently demand more federal dollars than others, such as San Diego Unified School District.

The cuts may come from summer programming, tutoring support, or academic support services, Chevalier said. But that may happen even if there is a plan to avoid sequestration. 

“What we have seen historically both at the federal level and state level, is that education gets cut pretty easily,” she said. “It’s usually the first on the chopping block.”

Parents also anticipate budgetary challenges from the state this coming year. Though Gov. Jerry Brown anticipates a surplus of money for California in his proposed budget, he said he and lawmakers should plan for leaner times to come.

Also, though many education advocates are still celebrating the passage of Brown’s tax initiative Proposition 30, the PTA was neutral on the measure during campaigning. They chose instead to support the alternate tax measure, Prop. 38.

Now that their measure-of-choice has failed, PTA members will have to reevaluate their position on education funding, said local PTA member Laura Schumacher.

“We’ll find out what’s next,” she said. “They were happy at least that Prop. 30 passed and we don’t have to deal with more draconian cuts, but it isn’t a long term solution.”

On Tuesday, SDUSD officials announced despite the passage of Prop. 30, the district still faces a projected budget deficit of more than $80 million. 

Schumacher said the PTA members would be learning about Prop. 30’s funding formula at the Thursday conference to come up with some short-term solutions.

The ringleader of a drug and money-laundering scheme cried as he apologized to his family at his Thursday sentencing. 

A judge sentenced Joshua John Hester, 31, to 100 months in federal prison for illegally selling thousands of pounds of marijuana at two dispensaries in San Diego.

Hester admitted to being the silent owner of the two dispensaries as a front for his business. He also created a phony board of directors to run his fake business. US District Attorney Laura Duffy said his case was the "most significant prosecution of a large-scale dispensary operator in the Southern District of California."

Judge Irma Gonzales said that although dispensaries "can serve a lot of good in the community" by helping the sick, Hester used them as a front and "did something that is terribly illegal."

Duffy agreed, calling Hester the "poster boy" for the types of dispensary operations that the federally government is targeting.

"He wasn’t overseeing a non-profit collective that served sick people," Duffy said in a statement. "He was a convicted drug trafficker making millions of dollars selling high-quality marijuana to recreational users and exploiting state laws that were meant to help the seriously ill."

Prosecutors said Hester laundered over $2 million by purchasing a home in Rancho Santa Fe, where he grew pot in a secret room. 

He also admitted to secretly owning a 37-acre plot of land in the Palomar Mountain area, but placed the property in another name to conceal his ownership, Duffy said. 

"[You] never really had respect for the law ever. Ever," Gonzales told Hester in court Thursday. 

During Thursday's sentencing, Hester cried as he apologized to his family and Judge Gonzales. 

"I am sorry," he said through tears. "I take full responsibility for things that got out of hand."

At his sentencing Thursday, Hester's attorney asked for a four-year sentence instead of the recommended 10 years, saying "this is not meth, not cocaine." 

Hester was arrested in Los Angeles in July 2010.